Posted on 07/14/2014 8:42:23 PM PDT by Star Traveler
US and Palestinian Authority also support ceasefire terms, but Hamas appears set to refuse the offer.
Israel was poised to accept on Tuesday an Arab League-backed ceasefire deal with Hamas which would go into effect in the evening, Israeli officials indicated Monday night, as the terrorist group signalled that it would refuse the deal
Israeli media sites quoted diplomatic sources suggesting that Jerusalem was inclining to accept the Egyptian proposal. Earlier, sources told The Times of Israel that “Those proposals are being considered very seriously.”
If the cabinet accepts the ceasefire, it would be doing so despite staunch opposition from many in the Israeli right, including Jewish Home party head Naftali Bennett, who say Israel must deal Hamas a heavy military blow before a truce can be considered.
But as the US, the Arab League and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas all welcomed the ceasefire proposal, Hamas appeared to reject the idea, with spokesman Fawzi Barhum saying the group would not accept a truce without a fully-fledged deal to end hostilities.
“A ceasefire without reaching an agreement is rejected. In times of war, you don’t cease fire and then negotiate,” he told AFP.
He said Hamas had not received any official proposal and that “the weapons of the resistance are a red line.”
Earlier, Hamas’s former prime minister Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech that “countries are intervening” to stop the bloodshed, and that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was involved in “diplomatic moves,” but did not elaborate.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesofisrael.com ...
The dance that has gone on for hundreds of years.
Do what ya gotta do Israel. Once and for all. End this.
That’s said most any time with the same result.
“Expected” by whom?
Good. I hope Hamas keeps up the pressure so Israel could finally wipe them out. Regardless - the world will still back Hamas.
There’s a problem with truly “ending” Hamas ... starting with the problem if it is actually possible at all. First let me start with something here ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3180125/posts
Quoting from article ...
On the other hand, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is entirely relevant to the conflict. Netanyahu has chosen — correctly, on moral, factual, and strategic grounds — to do as much damage to Hamas in the Gaza Strip as can be done by the highly-capable Israeli military. Netanyahu knows, as Tony Blair admonished Israel this week, that he cannot entirely stamp out Hamas because it exists as a political and ideological entity, not only a terrorist force. But he can destroy vast parts of its networks, its command structure, and its rocket arsenal.
— — —
Now, for sake of discussion, let’s say you are able to end Hamas in Gaza (which I don’t think is possible because the price is way too high for Israel to pay) ... then Israel is faced with being a military government in charge of a civilian population, in which you would have thousands of Israeli soldiers as easy targets right inside Gaza.
Right now, Gaza is semi-autonomous, and the Israeli military doesn’t set foot inside there, leaving everything to the Hamas government. When a government’s military steps in and conquers an autonomous area (they’re not technically a country, although Israel has left them to be one, within certain constraints) — that country has to provide for the civil government, and initially that would necessarily be a military government until such time as Israel could set up local officials and elections and all the necessary infrastructure.
Now let me tell you - that - is the NIGHTMARE SCENARIO that Israel wants ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with.
I don’t think Israel would EVER do that and take over with a military government, and move to installing a new civilian government. You talk about “no cooperation” with the “locals” ... That would basically define Israel’s position there and open Israel up to the “occupation” argument and make things also worse politically in the world for Israel.
It sounds like the Cabinet is leaking information ... :-) ...
See Post #7 ...
They ran out of targets?
Egyptian ceasefire proposal leaves Hamas cornered
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3180308/posts
Either the Islamists accept near-humiliating terms, or they risk isolation and a stepped-up Israeli military assault
[O]ne thing is certain: This is the darkest hour for the Hamas leadership in Gaza and abroad
If they accept the Egyptian proposal, they will be perceived as having been heavily defeated in the latest round of conflict with Israel; a defeat that is close to a humiliation.
That’s because the conditions in the Egyptian proposal do not include any of the demands that Hamas has been repeating day and night in the last few days. As reported in the Egyptian media, there is no mention in the proposal of Hamas’s oft-repeated demand for the release of the dozens of its operatives, freed in the 2011 Shalit deal, who were rearrested in recent weeks by Israeli forces in the West Bank in the wake of the murders of the three Israeli teenagers. There is also no concrete commitment regarding the opening of the Rafah border crossing or the payments of the salaries of Hamas’s 40,000 clerks in Gaza. And there is no mention whatsoever of the situation in the West Bank. All these demands were raised by the Hamas military wing two days after Israel began Operation Protective Edge, and repeated interminably ever since.
Yes, there is some language providing for the opening of the border crossings, and an easing of movement of people and goods via those crossings as permitted by the security situation. But that language is almost a direct repetition of the November 2012 ceasefire terms that brought Operation Pillar of Defense to a close. Time and again, Hamas’s leaders have been stressing in recent days that “there will be no return to the 2012 ceasefire terms.”
Support for them from whom is going to evaporate? From the European Union? Russia? Red China and North Korea? Iran?
They just did reject this.
Hamas has a commanding majority on the Palestinian National Authoritys Legislative Council.
Israel’s Peres: World Leaders Support Our War Against Terrorism
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3180313/posts
Peres’ word is about as good as Obama’s.
Hamas and the Palestinian authority are competing against each other in their own respective territories with Hamas controlling Gaza and the P.A. controlling the West Bank. That so-called legislative body is non-functioning ... LOL ...
I don’t think he was giving anyone his word ... he’s just telling people what they can already see from the reports themselves ... :-) ...
It’ll never end till the “Palestinians” are vanquished totally.
I think the more interesting story here is the ‘illegitimate and unelected government of Egypt’ is, yet again, the cornerstone of this cease fire and negotiations.
I call that a win, no matter what happens.
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